Brunssum, The Netherlands - On Tuesday 31 January, the French Centre for Higher Military Studies (Centre des Hautes Etudes Militaires, or CHEM) visited Headquarters Allied Joint Force Command Brunssum (HQ JFCBS).
The integration of multi-domain effects is key for our collective defence in the context of the concept for Deterrence and Defence of the Euro-Atlantic Area (DDA)
The CHEM prepares officers to take on the highest responsibilities within each branch of the French military, including joint and central government duties. Around thirty students are selected each year by the Minister of the French Armed Forces from among the most promising Colonels, Navy Captains, or equivalent, deemed to have the potential to take on the most demanding roles in France and abroad.
The CHEM students (twenty-five from France and six from Belgium, Germany, Italy, Sweden, and the United Kingdom) came to JFCBS to receive a comprehensive understanding of the Alliance’s operational structure from the perspective of one of its three Joint Force Commands. Prior to JFCBS, they also visited NATO Headquarters, ACO (Allied Command Operations), and French forces deployed in Estonia and Romania as part of two of NATO’s eight multinational battlegroups.
Général de brigade (OF-6) Stéphan Uro, French Senior National Representative, welcomed the students, and offered them an overview on the duties and activities of HQ JFCBS. The delegation was then invited to visit the Joint Operations Centre (JOC), the operational nerve centre of the headquarters, for a sense of how JFCBS conducts its day-to-day business.
The delegates then met with the Deputy Commander of JFCBS, Lieutenant General Luis Lanchares, who stressed the need for NATO to continue to evolve in order to counter new security threats, saying, “The integration of multi-domain effects is key for our collective defence in the context of the concept for Deterrence and Defence of the Euro-Atlantic Area (DDA).”